QMPSB was first discovered by Lambeng and colleagues in 2007. It acts as a full agonist of the CB1 receptor and CB2 receptor with Ki values of 3 nM and 4 nM, respectively.[2] A large number of related derivatives were subsequently produced, with the main focus of this work being to increase selectivity for the non-psychoactive CB2 receptor.[3][4][5][6] This work led on from an earlier series of sulfamoyl benzamide derivatives for which a patent was filed in 2004.[7]

The quinolin-8-yl ester motif of QMPSB led to the discovery of other designer cannabinoids such as PB-22 and BB-22.